Weekend Box Office Wrap Up: February 19th, 2012

Just like last weekend, another close battle was waged at the box office, and this time Denzel Washington has come out on top. The Oscar winner’s latest foray into the action genre, Safe House should gross an estimated $24 million over the three days – giving it $78 million total. That’s a great number for the film, which will cross the $100 million mark and make it one of Washington’s highest grossing efforts. It’s even better news for co-star Ryan Reynolds, who needed to anchor a hit following the one-two punch combo that was Green Lantern and The Change-Up.

Hit romantic drama The Vow is also continuing to do well, grossing another $23.6 million and upping its cume to $85.5 million, a great gross for the $30 million film.

Third place belongs to Nicolas Cage’s Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance, which has grossed $22.3 from Friday to Monday. The comic book sequel has scored around half of what its predecessor did in 2007. That film opened to $45 million, on its way to almost $116 domestic and over $228 million worldwide – despite terrible reviews. This sequel has also suffered the wrath of the critics (read our review) and it should fall hard next week, but it will be profitable considering its relatively low budget ($57 million).

Cage has been having a rough time at the box office of late, with his last release, Joel Schumacher’s Trespass getting released in just ten theatres and grossing $24,000. His last wide release was Drive Angry, which opened to just $5 million, on its way to just over $10 million. In fact, the closest thing that the Oscar winner has had to a hit in the last few years is Knowing, which grossed $79 million.

Dwayne Johnson’s Journey 2: The Mysterious Islandalso held up well, and it should score $20 million for a total of $53 million. The family sequel has already grossed over $130 million worldwide.

McG’s This Means War was shunted from its Valentine’s release in an attempt to avoid bad tracking, mediocre reviews (read ours) and The Vow. It wasn’t as successful as filmmakers would have hoped grossing just $17.5million over the weekend – not good when it stars Reese Witherspoon, who is bankable in the genre and when it co-stars up and comers Chris Pine and Tom Hardy.

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace scored another $7.8 million and brought its re-release gross to $33 million. That gives the George Lucas directed film a domestic gross of $464 million since it was first released in 1999, making it the highest grossing installment in the science fiction saga.

Low budget hit Chronicle banked another $7.5 million and upped its gross to $50 million. So far the $12 million film has brought in around $80 million worldwide.

The Woman in Black grossed a further $6.6 million for a cumulative gross of $45 million. The Daniel Radcliffe horror film is holding up well, and it’s a solid hit for the Harry Potter star.

The Secret World Of Arrietty was a surprise entry in the top ten, grossing $6.4 million. This is the highest debut for a Studio Ghibli film, which was released by Disney.

Liam Neeson’s The Grey rounded out the top ten after grossing $3 million. The action drama has now grossed $47 million, for a worldwide take of around $60 million.

Outside the top ten The Descendants became Alexander Payne’s highest grossing film, having amassed over $73 million domestically and over $132 million worldwide. The dramedy is star George Clooney’s seventh highest grosser behind 2009’s Up In the Air which accumulated over $83 million at the domestic box office.